Helena Bertinelli
Helena Bertinelli (codename Huntress) is the last living of the executed Bertinelli mob family. She eventually returned to Gotham for bloody vengeance after years of learning combat & fighting skills. She is a member of the Justice League, Birds of Prey, Checkmate & the Bat Family. Background 1982 - 1994 Franco & Maria were in for surprise when she went into labor during their Valentine's Day celebration. Helena was born into the Bertinelli family, the infamous Sicilian crime family that ran the East End of Gotham. While her father doted upon Helena, he did not care much for her mother. He emotionally & physically abused her but was careful to never hit her face. Her mother eventually fell in love with Santo Cassamento, a mob boss of a rival gang. Cassamento would be the one to order the hit on the Bertinelli family so that he could be with Maria. Telling the hit man "to spare the sister" meaning Maria, he misunderstood & left Helena alive to witness the murder of her whole family at only 12 years old. 1994 - 2005 Following their deaths, she was taken in by Uncle Tomasso & Aunt Graziella in Sicily, where the Bertinelli family originated from. Sicily was the safest place for her so she remained there, raised with her cousins. Though the family was much stronger in Sicily then they were in Gotham, her uncle & cousin still taught her hand to hand combat & how to operate weapons for her own safety. Though the training helped her, her nightmares of her family's & her own eventual death continued to haunt her. Her cousin told her the best way to get over the nightmares was to put an end to those who murdered her family. He then began to teach her how to use a crossbow among other weapons. She continued training until the fall of 1997 when she was sent to a Switzerland boarding school to keep her away from the Sicilian authorities cracking down on her family. During her time in school, she realized that the mob was not what she grew up to believed it to be. The mob was the source of corruption & evil as well as the reason of her family's murder. It was then Helena began to plot her own revenge. After graduating in 2000, Helena returned to her uncle's house in Sicily though it had been abandoned for some time due to her family getting arrested. She took her old crossbow & a number of other weapons then headed back to Switzerland for college. She went on to get her degree in criminology while learning everything she could about the mafia. After finishing college & making her own costume, Helena returned to Gotham in 2005 as the Huntress. 2005 - Present Missing data. Relationships * Dinah Lance: Best friend. Despite their distinct personalities, they got a long well. Together with Barbara, they started the Birds of Prey. * Barbara Gordon: Best friend. Romantic Relationships * Dick Grayson: They entered into a short fling out of convenience from June to November of 2008. * Vic Sage: Missing data. Powers & Abilities * Investigation * Archery * Martial Arts * Firearms * Peak Human Condition * Stealth * Throwing * Multilingualism: Helena speaks fluent English, Italian & Calabro-Sicilian. Weaknesses Missing data. Ratings * Intelligence: Level 4 * Strength: Level 4 * Speed: Level 4 * Occult: Level 1 * Weapons: Level 6 * Energy Projection: Level 4 * Strategy: Level 5 * Fighting Ability: Level 5 Trivia *Helena has spent majority of her life growing up around gangs & criminal organizations, which has made her very smart on how they function. *Dinah & Barbara think the reason she became a teacher was to help other kids. *She takes more pride in being a teacher than a crimefighter. *She once drove over a semi-separated bridge with no problem. *Cynthia Lance gave her the nickname Spinster. *Helena is very religious & carries a gold cross with her everywhere. Her mother gave it to her as a child. *She can be reckless at times when she becomes determined or clouded by emotion (i.e. finding out Santo Cassamento put out the hit on her family). *She states that she had no regret over killing Cassamento. *Batman has voiced his dislike over Helena's willingness to kill. Over time, she has become more accustomed to conventional methods of crime-fighting. *Of all the girls on both The Team & the Justice League, Helena is probably the biggest flirt of them all. It is usually harmless as it never goes anywhere but it gets the other girls mad. *After her & Dick stopped hooking up, she continued to flirt with him to the annoyance of Zatanna & Kori. She stopped doing it when she began dating Vic. *She had a one night stand with Roy Harper & John Constantine. *It's been implied that she had a threesome with Lady Blackhawk & Hal Jordan. *Huntress has a power ranking of 142, classifying her as Threat Level 3. Notes * Helena was also an English teacher in the comics. * The nickname Spinster is actually a nickname from the comics given to her from Cynthia Lance. * Her birthday was February 14 on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold. * Her alias of Helena Wayne is a nod to the character Helena Wayne. Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Justice League Category:Birds of Prey Category:Checkmate Category:Bat Family Category:The Team Category:LGBT+ Category:Peak Human Condition Category:Multilingualism Category:Dick Grayson's Love Interests Category:Threat Level 3